MADRID | Just a few days before the partial rescue of the Spanish banking sector was announced, Amado Franco talked to journalist Carles Francino during an interview broadcast by SER. Franco is president at one of the largest and healthiest cajas or Spanish savings banks. He is 66 years old and has spent 42 working at Ibercaja. He has been auditor, branch manager, executive, CEO and President since 2004. Franco is a…
By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | The second stage of Spain’s financial reform is going through a foggy tunnel in which stable entities have been left in a state of perplexity and confusion. The entities that aspire to be absorbed are too weak even to attract deals, the governor of the Bank of Spain is about to end his mandate and does not have the government’s trust, and the road…
By Tania Suárez | The board of directors of Ibercaja and Caja 3 have agreed to initiate the merger process of their banking business, in order to develop a new bank. Last February the Spanish minister of Economy Luis de Guindos announced the outline of the financial reform. It has shaken the system and the public opinion, but it is now starting to reap the fruits. As the economist Juan Pedro…
This is a note from Banco Santander analysts about the current state of what used to be their competitors, the savings banks. It is a good way to summarise where they are now and what they look like [emphasis is ours]: “The Bank of Spain (BoS) last Friday considered the process of re-capitalisation of the country’s financial system as completed. Thus, it has met the stringent capital requirements imposed by…
This is a note from Banco Santander analysts about the current state of what used to be their competitors, the savings banks. It is a good way to summarise where they are now and what they look like [emphasis is ours]: “The Bank of Spain (BoS) last Friday considered the process of re-capitalisation of the country’s financial system as completed. Thus, it has met the stringent capital requirements imposed by…
LONDON | We know what The Daily Telegraph did last weekend. On Saturday 22, its daintly designed Business pages brought a report that fitted in two short columns some risk agency quotations and Spanish politicians’ chit-chat about ongoing disagreements as far as the future of the cajas is concerned. “Spain to merge cajas in attempt to calm fears” the headline read, and rightly so. Yet, apparently, this piece of news had had to be tamed on its way into the paper.